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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27803005">Fruit Vert</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Stranger Things (TV 2016)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Age Difference, Alternate Universe - No Upside Down, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Older Billy Hargrove, Teacher-Student Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 16:07:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>20,372</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27803005</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Max meets her Uncle Billy, Neil's younger brother, at a Hargrove family reunion.</p><p>-</p><p>“I guess that makes me your Uncle Billy. Or step-uncle.” He chuckles to himself. “Sort of a mouthful. Just call me Billy.”</p><p>“Max,” she offers back with less prick than before. </p><p>Humming, Billy rights his sunglasses back on his nose, throws a glance to his family clustered at a picnic table, and then regards Max again.</p><p>“Hot as shit out here. You wanna see my car? Go for a ride?”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Billy Hargrove/Maxine "Max" Mayfield</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Anonymous</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Until the end of the year, every Monday I'll be posting something. While this is exciting for you dear readers, there's a real reason behind it. I go through phases when I'm in a fandom. And the last phase I go through before I change fandoms is a long period of no motivation. I'm at that point right now. So rather than sit on all this content and hope the urge comes back, I'm just gonna post stuff lol. You know. In case I stop writing ST fics lol. Don't really want it spilling over into 2021 if I find something new. No hard feelings at all for these characters, I literally think about them every day. I just don't have any mojo left in me to write, period. I'm not at all surprised this happened, expected it even. But anyway, please don't be sad, just enjoy this nasty porn!</p><p>That out of the way, <i>Lolita</i> inspired the title of this fic. You'll see the connection when you start reading lololol</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Claiming the plastic castle top of the jungle gym for herself, Max uses the shade to its maximum. San Diego in August is hot even in a tank top, shorts, and with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. But it’s either cram herself into this small space meant for children or loiter with the Hargrove adults in the pavilion. Heat and smoke rise off barbeque pits. Beers hiss when they pop open. Voices talk over one another as distant relatives catch up. She doesn’t know why mom had to drag the two of them to this with Neil. It’s the </span>
  <em>
    <span>Hargrove</span>
  </em>
  <span> family reunion. Mom is the only one who’d changed her last name. They’re only family on paper. Well, maybe Neil loves Mom. There’s no love lost between Max and Neil, though, which is why Max climbed up the slide to tuck herself away. She’s hungry, but it’s whatever. She’s not interested in mingling, keeps an eye on the cluster of adults in case someone comes looking for her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A newcomer branches off from the family. Max had watched him roll up in his loud, blue car and slip so smoothly from behind the wheel. He caught her attention mostly because she picked up Neil’s curse all the way from over here. Anything that irritates Neil holds Max’s attention at least for a little while. Aviators perched on his nose and his jeans too tight for a family event, he walked up with his thumbs in his pockets and a slick grin on his face. It split wider the closer he got, the more family members who approached him and fawned over him. Except Neil. Mom laid a hand on his arm to still his fury, but he just shrugged her off and stomped away into the sun.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max still has her head craned that way when, through the bustle of family catch up, that blond head swivels in her direction. He tugs his sunglasses down just a little to watch her over the tops of the lenses. Max counts to thirty in her head before he saunters over in heavy boots that kick up dust from the baked, San Diego earth. The baby blue button-up stretched across his barrel chest looks two seconds away from popping a button or two. He has the top two undone anyway, no undershirt. Max stares at golden skin when he stops at the bottom of the yellow slide. Static electricity leaps out to zap his arm when he tries to lean on it, and he flinches away. Max retreats into the top of the castle with a smile bitten back on her face. Because fuck is he gorgeous. Sleazy moustache and all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey there,” he calls up, knowing she’s still here. If a tiger or lion could speak, it would sound like this—amused and syrupy, come hither little prey. “Didn’t recognize you. Are you here with the rest of my family?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max doesn’t stick her head out to reply, “My mom dragged me here for the reunion.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, so you must be my brother’s little girl, Maxine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Snarling at that, Max thrusts her head above the curve of the slide, glares down at him, and snaps, “I’m not a little girl. And Neil isn’t my dad. He’s just the guy my mom married.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pink lips pucker and whistle as he stares up at her. Again, he hooks a finger over his aviators to nudge them down. He has devil eyes. No eyes should be that bright. A pretty man came to me, never seen eyes so blue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess that makes me your Uncle Billy. Or step-uncle.” He chuckles to himself. “Sort of a mouthful. Just call me Billy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Max,” she offers back with less prick than before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Humming, Billy rights his sunglasses back on his nose, throws a glance to the pavilion, and then regards Max again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hot as shit out here. You wanna see my car? Go for a ride?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max knows what that means. In September, she’ll start her freshman year at the stupid private school Neil insists on. But she’s had high school boys flirt with her. An offer for a ride was always an offer for more. More she never took them up on, too green and nervous for such a thing. Too green for more than kisses stolen behind the school or on the walk there. Billy is something entirely different from those boys. A world apart. He’s all man, no fumbling boy, and he has those devil eyes set on her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reading the heavy atmosphere loud and clear, Max spares a nervous glance to the shock of her mother’s red hair amongst the Hargroves. Neil hasn’t returned, is still wherever he stomped off to. Mom won’t mind if she hangs out with her ‘uncle.’ They’re family, so. Teeth in her lip, Max scoots forward and allows gravity to drag her down and around the slide. When she lands more or less at Billy’s feet, her legs splay wide to catch herself in the dirt. She’s wearing shorts. She knows they ride high, even higher thanks to the friction. The hems of the leg holes squeeze her soft thighs. Unashamed, he stares down at her right where she wants him to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shivering, Max shrugs her nerves out and goes for a casual, “Sure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The only struggle Mom gives her is a nervous, “All right,” when Max hollers where she’s going, who she’s with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She just barely catches Billy waving Mom’s worries away, assuaging her. He’s just showing Max his car, taking her for a ride. Maybe they’ll drive along the ocean; maybe they’ll stop for a swim. She’s in the safe hands of her uncle. Of course Max knows they’ll be doing no such thing. Because now that they’re close, she finds the static of the slide is nothing compared to the charge of standing so near him. Marching through the shimmering heat rising off the parking lot, their arms brush. Max shivers every time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seatbelt,” Billy mutters as they sling into the car at the same time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max does as she’s told, relaxes in the leather seat. It’s warm under her from even the brief time the car had sat in the August heat. Not a speck of dust dulls the dash, and the chrome accents of the gauge cluster shine. Billy makes a show of throwing the muscle car in reverse, tires squealing a little, and then they’re off. Insides a fluttering mess, Max is torn between keeping quiet or playing coy games with him. Because she catches Billy glancing at her time and time again while he drives with his arms draped casually about him. Her tank top is thin for the weather, her flimsy bra underneath not thick enough to keep her modest. The AC blasting straight onto her chest pebbles her little nipples and has them poking through. All for Billy to eat up as they drive. She has no idea where they’re going. Surely he lives nearby if he’d driven to the park for the reunion. So Max exhales nice and slow through her nose, steeling herself, and allows her body to relax further in the seat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I ask you something?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shoot.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max cocks her head towards Billy, smirk already on her lips. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So was Neil always an asshole, or is that a recent development?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A loud bark of laughter bubbles out of Billy, his nose wrinkling as his stomach huffs through each chortle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yea honey, he was always an asshole, even when we were kids. He’s the older brother, a total stick in the mud.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘Honey.’ Normally, Max scoffs and flips boys the bird when they try to label her. Cutie pie, baby doll, all that stupid shit. A shiver runs through her long after Billy’s voice purrs over the word. ‘Honey.’ Thighs sort of huddled together from the chill of the AC and him, Max forces herself back into the seat again. She copies his casual splay and draws her knees apart, rests her arms wherever they fit. Staring straight ahead, Max knows the flash of her milky thighs draws Billy’s attention. Will he be bold?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good to know,” she murmurs. To their left, the ocean stretches to the distant horizon and beyond. Max wonders what he’s planning. “So where are we going?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Their eyes meet when he glances sideways at her. A grin unfurls like a frond under his moustache.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What, you don’t think I’m taking you to the beach?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They roll up to a stoplight, engine rumbling as it idles. It gives them the perfect chance to share another glance. Max holds those devil eyes even as her heart skips a beat, even as she licks her lips while considering what to say. Can she be bold?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Trying not to stumble over herself, be cool, Max murmurs, “I think we both know you’re not.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It takes all her courage to do it. All the times she’d told bigger, older boys to fuck off and leave her alone when they thought they could touch her or yell at her. She’s mostly safe at the skatepark near the apartment she and Mom lived in before Neil. The older boys there are more interested in one-upping each other or trying to perfect the next big trick. School boys on the other hand are wild, roaming animals. She sees that edge in Billy, too. He was once a school boy. The grin on his face is slick like a school boy’s. Billy’s hum is deep and rich like a man’s when he turns his head back to the road and takes off when the light changes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that so?” he nearly purrs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His eyes stare straight ahead when his right hand wanders from the steering wheel. Growing bored draped over it, he rests it on the center console between them. Only for a few breaths, though, before it rises once more. The callused warmth of his palm blankets Max’s thigh below the hem of her shorts. Fingers short and a little ugly, they curl rather gently around the softness they find. His fingertips don’t quite dent that milky expanse, but he does squeeze her. If only to feel her jump or shiver. Max restrains herself, bottles her whimper, and only lets out a ripple of a shiver.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy hums again beside her and takes to petting her thigh up and down. The side of his palm pushes her shorts higher, exposing more of her to him. With every stroke, his rough fingertips pet higher and higher up her inner thigh. Max lets her legs fall open as wide as they’ll go and struggles not to make a sound. She’s sensitive here, likes to do this too when she gets the wild urge in her to touch and rub and thrust into herself. They come up to another stoplight, Billy squeezes her again, and then the pressure on her thigh lightens. Away. Heart lurching, Max slaps both of her hands to the back of his to keep him there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A rich chuckle bubbles out of him before he asks, “So Max, you got a little boyfriend or something?” She meets his eyes and finds one of his eyebrows cocked up. “Girlfriend?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Neil would raise hell. Not that she would ever let him know. He keeps her leash shorter than she’s used to or likes. He would probably choke on his rage if he knew she’s squirming in his little brother’s car with that paw of a hand fondling her. She wants more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nope,” Max sighs. She doesn’t want to take her hands off him in case he tries to pull away again. Another shiver races through her when Billy’s palm slides even higher. He’d brush her white panties if her shorts weren’t in the way. She throbs, wanting more. “Not right now anyway. I’ve had them before.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh yea?” He pinches her just a little, drawing a jolt out of her. Lower, he asks, “You let them show you a good time?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If he means full blown sex, then no. She won’t let them do that. Idiot little boys barely smarter than toddlers playing in a sandbox, always climbing up on any girl who gives them the time of day. Morons, the whole lot of them. They’re good for making out, but not much else. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pushing his hand down hard on her thigh so he feels how soft and hot she is, Max murmurs back, “Maybe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next breath Billy draws in is loud and long, exhale matching. All the downy hair on Max stands on end until it stings. The back of her neck is especially tender. She wants to peel a hand away from Billy’s to rub the skin, but that’s impossible right now. Because Billy’s pinky shifts ever so slightly and slips under the leghole of Max’s shorts. Only the cotton of her panties separates his finger from brushing over her mound. It gently flicks back and forth, up and down, until she aches inside. She squirms as they stop at a light, but they don’t linger. Billy turns right and shakes his hand free despite Max pawing at him. When he smirks at her and nods his head, she finally focuses on where they hell they are.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>An apartment building. Oh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You live here?” Max asks, voice thinner than she’d like. Wound up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy whips them into a parking space, says, “Yep,” and then slaps the car into park. Engine idling, he twists under his seatbelt and pins her with a heavy stare. “You wanna come up?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’re only here for one thing. Nerves gallop like wild horses in her. But they’re between Billy’s wolfish grin and the deep chasm of her lust for him. Nowhere to go but over the edge as he follows her into darkness. Letting him see her shiver, Max nods.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Groovy,” he purrs behind white teeth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course the thought strikes her, climbing up the stairs and fresh sweat pricking her, that this is ridiculous. She’s 14. He’s… well, too old. And her uncle. Step-uncle, whatever. They shouldn’t be doing this. He shouldn’t be coming on to a girl young enough to be his daughter. Billy hasn’t asked how old she is, obviously doesn’t care. It only takes Billy’s hand between her shoulder blades guiding her over the threshold of his front door for Max to sweep those thoughts away. No lights on in the apartment, the dimness of the space makes Max bold. She wants him. He excites her, makes her feel alive and something else. Something special.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The AC is cranking in here but has nothing to do with Max’s shiver. Every inch of her tingles when Billy takes his hand away. She doesn’t want him to stop, and so doesn’t move when the warmth of him blankets her back. He takes a knee behind her but keeps his hands off. The puffs of Billy’s exhales play games with the nape of her neck. Her hair is pulled high on the back of her head with a scrunchie. Max startles on her feet when Billy tugs at the elastic, not quite toppling her ponytail.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s nice and cool in here,” he murmurs almost against her neck, amusement sewn into his words. He tugs on her scrunchie again and laughs gently, “Let your hair down, honey, stay a while.” Hands take her waist and squeeze her. “You’re safe with your Uncle Billy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That should repulse her. Should make her sneer in disgust, twist out of his paws, and demand that he take her back to the park. And then immediately expose him for the pervert he is to her mom. Mom would believe her. Instead, Max’s stomach drops out and she shudders hard in his grip. Stumbling back a step, Max leans into Billy’s chest and shoulder. He takes her weight without effort, still on a knee behind her. His breaths brush warm and humid on her neck when Max turns her head the other way. Billy’s hands are firm at her waist for the first kiss to her throat. To catch her wild flinch. Billy shushes her, kissing her between sweet nothings. You’re all right, I’m not gonna hurt you, I just wanna make you feel good.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Clinging to his wrists, Max squirms on her feet and whines, “Billy…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His lips tickle the shell of her ear when he murmurs, “Take your shoes off.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She toes them off just as Billy hooks a thick finger in her scrunchie and gently works it free. Not like boys who tug on her hair, thinking it’s cute. Not a single lick of pain lights in Max’s scalp as her hair falls in a thick, wavy curtain. Billy’s hands don’t linger on her. Bulging arms scoop her under her knees and shoulders to sweep her off her feet. She yelps—it’s been years since someone did this to her—and throws her arms around Billy’s neck in a blind panic. He laughs in her hair, nuzzling through the tangled web to find her cheek. Max smashes her bright red face into his shoulder but allows him to kiss her cheek. He hugs her tightly to him, chuckling between wet kisses, and then marches her the short trip to the couch. From her vantage point high up, Max steals snippets of the rest of the apartment—quaint kitchen with old appliances, tiny dinner table with mismatched chairs, a fish tank—but it all disappears when Billy sits on the couch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Springs whine under their weight, but the old, sagging thing holds. Max straddles Billy’s lap, her ass brushing his erection through their clothes, for all of a few seconds. Billy’s hands slip to her waist and position her where they want her. He lays her out like Sunday dinner on the upholstered cushions—delicious and hot, fresh. Waiting to be devoured. Max shudders under his heavy gaze and digs her fingers into the cushion. The couch is tan and textured like corduroys. Smells vaguely musty like dust and maybe weed, spilled beer. Max blinks up at the popcorn ceiling with water damage spots until Billy sweeps into her view. His curls spill over his shoulders around his neck, and his necklace comes free of his chest to swing between them. His left arm braced on the backrest holds him up. Her yellow scrunchie is around his wrist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The thick fingers of Billy’s right hand pluck at the front of her tank top. It’s thin, damp under her arms and down the dip of her spine from sweat. In Billy’s apartment, that sweat chills and lifts the peach fuzz on her. Max catches devil eyes flashing down to find her nipples hard like in the car. They hurt, now. Max wonders if he’ll touch them. She startles out of the haze of her lust to Billy smirking above her. He’d said something. It passed in one ear and out the other.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lemme take this off you, honey,” he says so sweet, voice sugar and butter. “Lemme look at you, you’re such a pretty girl, Max.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She curls up a little, so uncertain under that praise, and laughs, “Y-yea right, sure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are,” he insists, bowing down to nuzzle the heat in her cheek and kiss a path to the corner of her mouth. He pauses there, his moustache pricking her when he purrs, “I like showing pretty girls a good time, and you’re the prettiest I’ve ever seen.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re lame,” Max mumbles while twisting her head away, denying his kiss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Awww, come on, don’t be like that.” Billy shuffles above her. His right hand finds her little chin, turns her head back to face him. “How about I prove it to you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy pays her little glare and the suspicious twist of her lips no mind when he keeps up his amused smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“One kiss,” he suggests. “Lemme kiss you once. If you don’t like it, I’ll take you back to your mom and we can forget this ever happened. If you like it though, then you let me”—he tugs on her shirt again—“take this off.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Let him take her shirt off and do more, he means. She aches everywhere, now, wanting more. Wanting things she doesn’t understand. Max just knows no boy has ever excited her like this. There’s just something about him. A siren’s song in those eyes and that charming smile. So Max gives him a jerky nod, tries not to flinch away when he bows down towards her mouth. Billy’s lips take hers just as Max’s brain objects to him mentioning they forget this little affair. Her arms are around his neck with her first whimper, though, and they drown out Max’s worries with moans in their kisses.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max doesn’t know how one kiss turns into two and then three until he’s bobbing into her, lapping her lips apart. She’s never liked this before when a boy would shove his tongue in her mouth. They only earned her teeth sinking into them for their troubles. Billy is gentle, so careful to not overwhelm her. Max’s heart tumbles in her chest to think he would choke her. Not so. He smiles against her lips while playing games with the gap she makes for him. Licking past it over and over until her lips are a little numb, until she finds enough boldness to play back. Their tongues touching is strange, almost coarse, but she doesn’t stop. She in fact whines and glares up at Billy when he’s the one to pull back and stop them. Heat seeps into her cheeks. His are as golden as they’d been before this started. Jerk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So?” he drawls, grin so sure of itself. “I didn’t hear any objections.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The nape of Max’s neck stings like earlier when she meets Billy’s eyes. She tries to focus on the short curl touching his forehead, but his focus on her is too strong. It’s either meet him or close her eyes to block him out. She can’t look away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So, eyes fluttering shut, Max gives him a nod. The fingers that had once controlled her chin return. Curled knuckles caress the heat in her cheek.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s that mean, honey? You gotta talk to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It takes a few swallows to get her voice to cooperate, but Max eventually murmurs, “I don’t wanna stop.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A hum, a deeply pleased, “Good girl,” and then a long kiss presses to her lips. They part with a wet sound and Billy saying, “Sit up for a sec’.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She obeys with one of her legs slipping off the couch. When Max’s little hands bunch at the hem of her tank top, Billy gently bats them away. He wants to undress her. So she lets him, thin arms raised above her and shaking her head after red locks drop free from her top. Her flimsy bra is next. No fumbling with the clasp at the back, Billy peels that off her too and then nudges her to lie back down. He is fully clothed while Max is naked from the waist up. As he stares down at her, eating up the slight swell of her breasts and how hard her nipples are, Max curls up again. Not exactly shy just… His stare is a lot. Her nerves bubble to the surface once more, and it takes Billy’s warm hands cupping her shoulders to get her to stop covering herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, don’t do that,” he pleads, smile coaxing and voice sweet again. “Don’t hide, baby, lemme look at you.” He pets her upper arms until they lie flat on the couch. Billy takes her waist next and slides his hands up her ribs, nearly cupping her breasts. “Fuck, you’re so pretty, Max.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re so lame, why do you keep saying that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max’s shoulders hunch up towards her shoulders when Billy laughs at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Swooping down with a grin, he presses a chaste kiss between her breasts and says, “Because it’s true!” Another kiss to the same spot with his head bowed like he’s praying at an altar. Max narrowly avoids meeting Billy’s eyes, him catching her staring, when he sits up again to tower over her. “You liked me kissing you. You gonna let me do more?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>More is scary and unknown, but she nods all the same. Because despite being entirely out of her depth and dropped into the deep end of the pool, Max wants this. Whatever this is. It’s exhilarating, like nothing she’s ever felt before. Max prides herself on being somewhat less afraid when Billy kneels between her legs, his own knees sinking deep into the couch, and blankets her to kiss her again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The bulk of him is pleasant on top of her. His big hands sink into the cushion under her head so his full weight isn’t pressing into her. It feels natural, right to wrap her legs around his waist and hold on, fingers tangling in his hair. Billy is sweat and heat and something rich as he kisses her harder, longer. It’s a lot to coordinate, bobbing her head and not drooling all over them when he eats into her mouth. Like he’s trying to devour her, which maybe he will. Billy balances his weight on one forearm curled above Max’s head to shake free a hand. That hand takes her waist, smooths up her ribs, and then cups the meager swell of a breast. It’s not until his thumb flicks gently back and forth over her nipple does she squeal into their kisses and buck against Billy’s weight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shhh,” he shushes against her trembling lips, pausing long enough to kiss her twice more. “It’s okay, Max, I’m not gonna hurt you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He rolls her nipple next. Not hard enough to hurt, but enough to zap pleasure straight between her legs where his weight pins her down. Even when Max bucks with every scrap of strength in her, Billy does not move an inch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She whimpers so sweetly for him, pays no mind to how he takes more kisses from her slack mouth. They pause only when Max turns her head away and tries to say something. His name, more, faster, something. Max’s head only stops swimming when Billy’s hand resumes gently fondling her breast.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why… why does that feel so good?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” His thumb brushes her nipple again. It’s almost sore from how much he’s played with it. “This?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max nods at first and then shakes her head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Everywhere, I…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She turns shy, now, and loops her arms around his neck to hide in his hair. The musk she’d smelled earlier is his cologne. Mixed now with sweat and cooled. It’s rich at Billy’s throat, hair warming it. His neck makes for the perfect place to hide while Max rides out her embarrassment. She knows what she’s trying to say. Because she’s touched herself before. Curiosity and restless nights get the better of her. Just how to say it escapes her. There are all sorts of crass words in her head for what she means. She just can’t bring herself to say them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, hey, come on, don’t hide.” Billy’s light laughter is back as he carefully pries Max’s arms from around his neck. He gets her flat under him again, although she won’t open her eyes to look at him. A caress to her cheek is coaxing though, and Max relaxes under Billy’s weight. “Talk to me, honey, tell me where you feel good.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pussy, cunt, </span>
  <em>
    <span>vagina</span>
  </em>
  <span> all rise like mocking laughter in her head. She manages a pitiful, “Between my legs,” instead. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Warm, humming laughter tickles Max’s jaw as Billy kisses a path down from her lips towards her neck. His moustache pricks her when he latches onto pale skin, nibbling and suckling. That’s new, and Max gasps and arches into him again. Billy won’t leave a mark, already drags his mouth back up the path he’d painted down. But now Max’s skin buzzes all over more than ever. The ache between her legs is almost unbearable, and she begins to shake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy pets hair out of her eyes and asks lowly, “Between your legs, huh? Just from kissing you a little and playing with your nipples?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just the one, but yes. She nods with her eyes tightly shut. Warm breaths puff over her face, and Max knows Billy watches her every twitch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell your Uncle Billy what it feels like, Max.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He chuckles and kisses her cheek.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because I wanna know how I make you feel. Is it scary? Are you excited?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It-it hurts.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It hurts? What, between your legs?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shuddering hard despite his weight, Max nods and tries, “I, it never feels like this when I do it myself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When you touch yourself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nods, face flaming hotter than ever before in her life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It doesn’t even feel good when I do it.” She huffs, cracks open her eyes, and shoots him a frustrated glare. “So why does it feel like this with you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Some smugness seeps into his smile when Billy says, “Because I know exactly where pretty girls like you need to be touched. I know how to make you feel good, don’t I?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That heavy tone again. ‘Good girl,’ and ‘tell me where you feel good.’ He says it in a certain way that unravels her and makes her want to say anything back. It’s a game, she thinks, but she doesn’t know how to play. So Max just glares harder up at Billy and then looks away, nodding. Although she’s reluctant to admit it, because she still doesn’t understand his power over her. It should scare her. In some ways it does, but she cannot find it within herself to tell him to stop and let her put her clothes back on. She is sweaty in her shorts, sticking to herself. Hot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even when Billy pets her hair and sits up, off her, she is still baking in her skin. His fingertips play featherlight games back and forth across her belly. Shivering and hunching in on herself again, Max watches down her body as Billy draws his fingers over the pale skin above her shorts. A pretty whimper and startle rip out of her when Billy dares to dip his fingers just under her waistband. He wants more, probably wants to take her shorts and panties off. The burning memory of his hand on her thigh, his pinky petting her through thin cotton in the car rises back to her, now. Head swimming with desire, Max reaches with shaking hands for the button and zip on her shorts. Just like before with her shirt, Billy brushes her away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Want me to make you feel even better?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blinking in a daze, green-blue eyes flick up to Billy perched above her. The dimness of his apartment, curtains drawn and lights off, casts him into soft shadows. His hunger is there, blazing like a forest fire in his eyes. Fingers tangling in a nervous ball on her belly, Max nods.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gonna be my good girl and let me undress you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She makes a face at him with heat rising fresh in her cheeks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not if you’re gonna sit there with all your clothes on. It’s weird.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy glances down at himself, huffs a laugh, and then returns his intense focus to Max. His laughter continues to bubble out of him. It’s not quite mocking, but he is amused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think you can handle that, huh? You’re as red and a cherry right now. It’s not gonna be any easier with me naked, honey.” His grin widens to something mischievous. “And I’m not gonna let you hide your pretty face. I wanna see all of you, Max.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine! Just stop talking and take your clothes off!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy’s voice embarrasses her most of all. Rakes nails up and down her back, plays games with the baby hairs at the nape of her neck. Jeez, does he never shut up? He does when they’re kissing, at least, tongue too busy diving into her to form words. As if bidden, Billy swoops down for a few fast kisses that leave Max breathless, panting where she spreads out. A feast for him. The extent of her sexual knowledge begins and ends mostly at a teacher stumbling through health class. Menstrual cycles, puberty, making babies. She knows that much, will put her foot down and insist he wear a condom if they get that far. The moment Billy stands and sheds his clothes like a second skin, jeans without underwear pooling at his ankles, Max has second thoughts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A tiny noise, just a soft, “Oh,” escapes the surprised circle of her lips as she gapes at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rather proud, Billy stands there with his hands on his hips. Mindless to Max’s panic and lust mixing together. She’s never seen an adult man naked before. Not that she can remember and certainly not with puberty opening her eyes. Max didn’t expect him to be so… big. A few comical comparisons spring to mind. Crass things she heard tumble from school boys’ mouths. The comedy of such things brings her no comfort as she stares at veins and pink flesh. Billy clearing his throat shreds Max’s focus on his soft cock swinging and forces her eyes up. She hates how heat pools in her cheeks, pressure behind her eyes as her embarrassment doubles, triples under his grin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Max, don’t tell me you’ve never played show and tell before.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His smugness twists her irritation further. Max gets her arms and legs under her, wrestles herself to her feet. With what intent, she’s not sure. Billy’s hands on her shoulders draw her to him, stilling her. Nipping unmade plans in the bud. They stand near enough for Billy’s radiant body heat to roll over her. It’s a blessing and a curse, because she just shivers and reminds herself of the terrible ache inside her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Going somewhere?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Deep voice racing through her and exciting her peach fuzz, Max tries to shrug Billy off her. The hands at her shoulders tighten, shake her a little.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop,” he murmurs. They stand there long enough that Billy knows she won’t try anything. He hums while looking down on her, loosens his grip to pet up and down her arms. “You want this, remember?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max shuffles her shoulders and tries to avoid his eyes. She cannot look away, bewitched. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a lot, okay? I wasn’t expect you to be… I wasn’t expecting it to be so…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re adorable when you’re embarrassed,” he teases with a grin, lightness returning to the air around them. He pets her some more before walking them backwards a step. When Max’s calves brush the couch, he pushes down on her. Gentle as always. “I’m gonna finish undressing you, and then I want you to lie back down like you were. Understand?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy tips her chin up at the same time as he bows down. The soft kisses they trade reassure her. His roughness just now, shaking her a little, stirred up her insecurity like muck at the bottom of a creek. These kisses wash her clear again, and when Billy pulls back, Max arches up on socked feet to give chase. The heat of him reminds her why he’d caught her eye in the first place. He’s captivating—annoyingly so—and attractive. There is that school boy malicious edge to him, as she’s seen now, but she wants him anyway. Max holds fast to that truth as Billy drops to a knee once more and plucks at her shorts with his thick fingers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he peels her underwear away, cool air smacks between her legs. She knows with a wiggle that she’s sticky, that she’s probably rubbed a slick spot in the bottom of her panties. Max isn’t expecting Billy to curl a finger around the waist of them and lift them up, inspecting said shiny spot. Max grits her teeth and looks away, spies Billy’s obnoxious grin spreading on his face in her periphery. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Honey, you weren’t kidding about feeling good. You just about soaked these panties.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If her ears could curl up and fall off, they would. He is insufferable!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you ever stop talking?” she hisses. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy drops her panties to the floor with the rest of their clothes, grin still slick, and drawls, “Funny you mention that. I was just thinking about what I’m gonna do to you. It sort of prohibits me from talking, if you catch my drift.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She does not, has no earthly idea what he’s talking about. So Max only gives him a soft squeal when he manhandles her back to the couch. Billy lays her out like a feast once more, but he does not welcome himself on top of her. No, with both hands braced into the cushion under Max, he holds himself aloft. Towering above her, he burns her with his devilish stare while bowing his head to her chest. He holds himself there, holds their stare, while just breathing on the milk and honey of her. Delicate and pale all over with freckles from previous sunburns spattered across her collarbones. When Max can’t take it anymore, breaks their stare, Billy chuckles deep in his throat and finally kisses her once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>First the flat space between her little breasts, skin tightening as she warms back up to him. His fingers plucking her nipple earlier had her squirming in no time. Max gives him a shout and throws her hands into his hair when his tongue slips out to touch her. First lapping and then tracing teasing, maddening circles around a pink bud. When his mouth seals over her, suckling so gently like at her neck, Max sags into the couch. She is a puddle under him, trembling and cooing from how he toys with her. She suspects before he lifts off that he’ll do the same to her other nipple, moans louder for him when he does exactly that. He bites this one, though, and moans when her squeal bounces off the walls. It takes her bucking into his mouth for him to stop nibbling her. Those wicked lips suckle at her once more until the pain is gone, leaving her panting. Her nipples are twin, buzzing points of pleasure when he’s done, such a new feeling, and her desire between her legs grows only hotter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>How such a simple thing turns her on so much confuses her. That confusion melts into the background of Max’s mind as Billy trails more kisses down her body. His moustache pricks her with each one, and he laughs lightly in her belly when she trembles. The farther down he wiggles the less everything makes sense. Now sunk to his elbows in the couch, Billy holds himself up on his forearms. He hovers just above her, trapping their body heat and keeping her warm. Well, her lower half anyway. With her chin in her chest as she blinks down the pale expanse of her, the rest of Max’s body comes alive in goosebumps. Blue eyes glance up at her just as Billy kisses under her navel. He takes in downy hairs standing on end, wiggles his hands closer, and lazily pets her sides up and down. That tickles, though, and Max immediately squirms and giggles under him. That coaxes a smirk out of him, some mischief as Billy deliberately wiggles his fingers over her ribs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll kick you if you don’t stop!” she gasps between laughter, already rearing a foot up to strike. Max pawing at his wrists is useless, thus leaving her with only one other option. She’s been told she kicks like a horse.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One more flick of his fingers and then Billy murmurs with such thick amusement, “None of that, now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He crams himself into the other half of the couch to bring his head level with the V of her legs, the little wisp of hair on her mound. Max freezes when he breathes on her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What-what are you doing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A kiss to her mound, just above her little clit, has her whimpering and trembling all over again. Max goes to sit up, to see better or stop him, but Billy beats her to it. One of his hands blankets the whole of her shoulder, fingers pressing into her neck as he guides her right back down to the couch. Her heart flips so many times that she worries it will ricochet right out of her. Or stop. She cannot help the nerves that rise in her and demand she curl up, shy away from him. Billy doesn’t allow that either. Leaning on her right leg pinned to the back of the couch, Billy releases Max’s shoulder only to pet up and down her thigh. It’s almost enough to coax her into relaxing, but she still cowers when their eyes meet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m gonna make you feel so good, honey, don’t worry.” He bows his head to his altar once more and kisses her in the same spot, lingering with his eyes staring right at her. “You’ll like this, you’ll see. Just be a good girl for me, yea?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Max remains tense and quiet, almost glaring at him, Billy widens the reach of his hand. From the outside of Max’s thigh all the way up between her breasts, Billy draws his rough palm back and forth, up and down. The skinship soothes Max a little more the longer he does it. His mouth is not idle while she watches him, trembling. Max isn’t sure what to do with her hands. They’ve tangled frantically into Billy’s loose curls a few times. Now with Billy peppering soft kisses over her mound and belly, she’s not sure what to do with them. She doesn’t want to chicken out and be a baby about this. She can do this, still wants him and whatever they’re about to do. Even if it scares her. At least his kisses still feel good despite Max’s trepidation. When his hand comes to a stop just above her navel, holding her, Max covers it with both of hers like earlier in the car. Bright eyes flash up to her, and then Billy sits up to hover over her again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Slipping his hand out from under Max’s, he pets her hair and says with a grin, “See? You’re okay. You know I’m not gonna hurt you.” A long, meaningful glance down her body, to the center of her pain, and then back up. “Still hurts?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max squirms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yea.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Want me to make it feel better?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t know what that means, but it can’t be worse than this ache. So Max licks her lips and nods, trying to look everywhere and yet not at him. Because he’s somehow bigger between his legs, and the vague knowledge of sex in her head doesn’t know how to fit </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> with her body. Where she knows it’s meant to go. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So it’s Max’s insecurity over the unknown that pushes her to say, “What exactly are you going to do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy snorts at her with his wiry grin lingering and says, “Well, you asked me if I ever shut up, so I thought I’d eat you out first. Then we’ll see how much I can fit in you.” Both hands pet up her inner thighs, thumbs brushing coarse, red hair. Not quite touching shiny wetness. “You’re so little, but I bet I can stretch you out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A flash of Max’s green-blue eyes betrays her when she glances at Billy’s dick.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Y-yea right, you’re funny if you think that’ll fit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Flattery will get you everywhere with me, Max, be careful,” he drawls with a wink. “And don’t be so hasty, I’ll take my time. I wanna make you feel good, remember? You want that, I know you do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His shadow falls over her when he bends down for a kiss. More tension slips out of Max now, remembering how nice this is. She likes this, likes bobbing her head with him and licking him back. Maybe she’s too sloppy with it with her mouth open wide and eager, but it feels good. It’s not at all scary, even with Billy’s hands squeezing her inner thighs. So close to where she’s aching, where she wants him to touch her again. That brief caress up her shorts in the car hadn’t been nearly enough. She was telling the truth earlier—it never feels like this when she does it herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” she gasps when they separate. “Okay, d-do it, touch me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ask nicely,” he teases. “Say, ‘I want you to eat me out.’”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy shrugs, letting her bratty sneer go without comment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because I wanna hear you say it. How do I know that’s what you want if you don’t say it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She grits her little teeth harder, grumbles, “I just said it was okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Some of Billy’s edge creeps into his face and voice when he says, “Max.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s almost like she’s being scolded. But it’s strange with them lying naked on a couch. The setting and mood don’t fit a lecture. Billy’s stern face is a little scary, so Max throws her head back and sighs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine. I want you to eat me out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please eat me out!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She doesn’t even know what the hell that means. She’s not in the dark for long as Billy settles back between her legs, head level with her privates, and smears a lippy kiss right to her clit. Max jumps hard, squealing again. Luckily for Billy’s nose, his hands are ready to catch her hips and guide her right back to the couch. That one kiss is just the icebreaker, though. Max coos and flinches when he kisses her again, more, harder and with his tongue. The sight of him is obscene, lapping at her like she’s some kind of sweet treat. His devil eyes flicking up to her while he continues is unbearable, so Max drops her head to the cushion under her. This way, she cannot see him. She can still hear the wet licks of his tongue and suction when he seals his lips around her. That’s like all her skin coming alive at once, sends electricity tripping up her spine. Max scrambles at the couch to hold on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“O-oh my god, what are you—!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sucks harder like at her nipples, smirking where his messy mouth is pressed to pink folds. Milky thighs flinch and then rise up. They almost box Billy right in his ears, but his hands snatch the outsides of Max’s thighs. Fingers denting her skin, Billy hikes her legs over his shoulders. She could slam her heel into his back and hurt him. Knock the wind out of him. But she doesn’t when he finally pulls off her with a hum only to slide that awful tongue down, down to where all her agony pours out. Distantly, she knows she’s wet. Like sometimes when she wakes up in the middle of the night, sort of rocking her hips into her bed. That’s when it’s easiest for her to cram a hand down her panties and get herself off. It’s not easy when she does it. Now with Billy’s tongue? It’s heavenly, and she can only manage to whimper his name and nonsense.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With her legs thrown over Billy’s shoulders like this, Max’s leverage comes from digging her heels into his back. He grunts against her but allows it. This way she can sort of rock her body into his face. Fast stabs of his tongue to her hole encourage Max to snap harder into him. Her ass lifts off the couch, and she jumps when Billy’s hands sweep under her. Those big paws cup her ass, fondling her and then denying her movement when he tries to wiggle his tongue into her. Max stares down the twitching length of her body, watching Billy’s head waggle as he fights how tight she is. He catches her staring, grins around his tongue, and has the audacity to wink at her. Red to match her hair, Max flicks him off only to squeal when he slides his mouth up to suck on her clit again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He pulls off to growl against her, “Fuck, you’re so pretty, Max.” He mouths a hard kiss to her poor clit again, making her flinch and whimper. Through the embarrassed haze in her eyes making them misty, she sees his chin is shiny when he licks his lips. “I can’t wait to feel how tight you are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a harrowing second, she thinks he means sticking his dick in her. She can’t even see it from this angle, but the poor girl throws a wild look down, craning her head. Billy just dives back into her with a groan, holding her to his face. The fingers of one hand dig into Max as he shifts all her weight to just one. Even though she’s watching, Max jumps at thick fingers pawing between her legs. His nails scratch through short hair, push farther still, and then swipe through sticky wetness. Max bucks into Billy’s face when he flicks his tongue fast over her clit. She likes that with her fingers when she’s on her belly in the middle of the night, nearly drunk from waking up so horny sometimes. He tortures her, though, and changes back to long laps against her. Now Max throws her trembling hands into his hair to hold his stupid face tightly to her body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“More, more more,” she pleads, panting and rocking into his face. “Feels so good, oh Billy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another deep hum tickles her. When Billy swipes his fingers through wetness and then presses against her hole, Max shudders hard. He’s playful with his fingers just like his tongue. As he alternates between long laps and kitten licks, a blunt fingertip teases her. Threatens to dip in her, tapping her like a button. Tap, tap, tap. Harder and harder, but gentle, until she starts to open. Max clings all the tighter to Billy’s hair and coos as he starts to slip in. He pauses with just the tip of his finger in her, wiggling. Pressing on velvet walls. Max fights him for a few breaths. Maybe testing if she can force him out. Maybe just seeing how different it feels. Billy just pauses his messy attention to her clit and hovers with heavy breaths above it. Max’s weight sags into his hand holding her up. And then she relaxes, sucking him down. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy moans with her—rough gravel to her wind chimes. It stings a little right at her entrance. It goes away the more he shifts, spreading slick around to coat his dry skin. When he pulls out to glide back in, he touches something her little fingers are too short to graze. Not that she doesn’t fold herself up and strain her wrist trying for it. It’s so different with someone else inside her, swirling a fingertip over that rough spot. Max bucks hard into Billy’s knuckles curled against her body. That feels even better, moving on him while he thrusts, so she wiggles to do it again. Gentle kisses peck to her clit every time she shifts with him. They find a rhythm together, slick making every glide of Billy’s finger filthy and loud. Max is too gone to fight her shame. His name tumbles from pink lips once more, and her grip on his hair turns frantic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Humming, Billy teases, “You’re gonna come.” Another kiss to her clit, this time with harsh suction when he pulls off. He curls his finger into her sweet spot and hits it every time. “Just like that, honey, you’re so pretty right now.” Faster, harder, until one long moan spills from Max’s lips. “Right here, that feels good, doesn’t it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes!” she sobs. She tightens around him without meaning to. All the times she’s touched herself, it hadn’t amounted to anything. Just felt good until she got bored or dry or numb, and then she stopped. Billy isn’t stopping. There’s a light at the end of this tunnel she’s never seen before, and it rushes towards her. “Don’t stop, o-oh god, don’t stop!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max’s eyelashes clump together when she blinks through tears. They don’t fall, but they want to. Meeting Billy’s intense stare while he keeps right on fucking her, Max’s mouth drops open as something seizes inside her. Heaviness that had built up through every glance, every graze of his hands gathers into a ball and starts to roll. Control isn’t hers. Max can only lie here, nearly bouncing herself on Billy’s finger as all that attention barrels down on her. Her pleasure ripples out first and then crashes into her all at once. It emanates out from his finger pounding into her, sweetens from his lips sealed around her clit. It’s the missing piece, surely. Touching both at the same time until the pleasure pours out of her, panting and screaming to the peaks of her orgasm. Distantly, Max thinks Billy moans with her. She can’t hear anything over her shrieking his name. It’s all buzzing nerves and bliss while she rides it out snapping around his finger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Drifting after her screams quiet to moans and then whimpers, Max thinks she should come back to her body slowly. It’s like waking up late on a Sunday with sunlight already spilling through her window, turning her room to gold. That’s how it starts, anyway, until Billy shifts between her legs. The springs in the couch groan with his movements as he hikes her legs up and drags her to him. She goes with a whine, let me be, but he isn’t done with her. She’s still buzzing and sensitive from his finger. So something blood-hot, blunt, and thicker startles the poor girl out of her daze. Billy holds her down with a hand splayed on her chest, catching her wild flinch. The other is wrapped around his hard cock, nudging the head to her entrance. He pushes forward. It burns immediately.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It takes a few tries to get her weak, wobbling voice to whine, “Stop, stop, that hurts.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’ll only hurt at first,” Billy assures her, shuffling on his knees. He pushes forward harder, fighting silky walls. It stings more and more. Tight. “Just sit still and be good for me, Max.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max’s legs tremble something awful when she tries to lift them. To kick him away; to keep him away from her. Billy’s edge creeps back into his face when he scowls at her. His hand on her chest slides up to her collarbones and holds her down that way. The grip at the base of her throat doesn’t choke her. But the threat is there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Max,” he grumbles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“N-no, stop you creep, that hurts!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Some part of him is in her. The sting of it! How it burns like he’s tearing her apart! Max’s hands dart up to scratch at the muscle of his forearm. Now Billy’s hand at her throat tightens, holding her down by her windpipe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I said be still,” he snaps. “It won’t hurt for long, you’ll get used to it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That edge of his is more frightening than the pain of him trying to push into her. Max slams her eyes shut to block the heat of his frustration. His glare is like Neil’s when he yells at her about spending her allowance at the arcade or coming home with a busted knee. So Max clings to Billy’s forearm and tries not to yelp from the agony, tries not to let her chin wobble as she winds up tighter and tighter. A high-pitched tone drones in her ears as she holds her breath to not panic and start wailing. Why does anyone allow a man to do this to them? Does it always hurt like this? It’d felt so good, what he did to her just moments ago. He was so sweet about it, so why is he like this? Max bites the inside of her cheek to the point of blood as a tear finally squeezes out of her. Billy is unmoving between her legs. The pressure just inside her remains for a breath. He sighs. And then it’s over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max gasps and shifts her head back as more tears come. She doesn’t want him to see them, hopes they just roll into her hairline and disappear. Billy isn’t done with her. His hands slips to her waist with a grumble. He is gentle once more as he picks her up and rearranges them on the couch. The only objection Max gives is a tiny whimper when he finally situates her on top of him. He’s the one lying on the couch now, in the spot she’d occupied this whole time. Solid muscle under her, he stretches out to take advantage of the three-seater. Billy piles Max on top of him, her head resting on his right shoulder, and pets her hair with his left hand. He holds her around her waist with the other arm, big hand flat in the small of her back. Petting her here, too. Lying there stone still on Billy’s chest, Max shies away from the press of his erection to her thigh. He’s already softer than before. Going down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop crying,” he grumbles into her hair. His arm squeezes her, relaxes. “I’m not gonna do anything else, so chill out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sniffling wet and gross, Max picks her head up. A lock of hair falls in her face as she blinks down at Billy’s pinched face. He must sense her staring, because he cracks an eye open to stare right back. Max shoots him her own glare once she blinks the last bit of mist out of her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jerk,” she mumbles. “That hurt.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I stopped, didn’t I?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They hold their glare, neither backing down. Billy is Neil’s brother through and through, though, so Max knows she won’t win. She huffs, petulant, and drops her head hard on his shoulder. Billy grunts when bone hits bone. Fingers pinching her bottom retaliate, but besides that they are quiet and calm. The atmosphere isn’t quite clear. Billy attempting to force himself on her until he’d given up with a sigh rests heavily on Max like his hand holding her down. So she sits up again with a frown and waits for him to look at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why do girls let you do that to them? If it hurts so much?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy sighs and nudges Max’s head back down to his shoulder. He tucks her tightly to him like that and pets her hair while he speaks. His voice rumbles out of his throat, almost tickling her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re smaller than me, I knew it would hurt a little bit. It’s not supposed to hurt, whatever bullshit people have told you. It’s not supposed to hurt and you’re not supposed to bleed. You were just gonna cry about it, though, so I stopped. Happy?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You should have stopped the first time I said anything,” she huffs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yea, well, at least I stopped. Boys your age woulda just kept right on fucking you. So you’re welcome.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s probably true. When she’s allowed them to kiss her in the past, they always tried for more. Tried to climb up on her, grope her breasts, her ass. Some were so bold as to try and get in her pants. They all got the same treatment: her teeth biting and her feet kicking. They’re all getting to the age where the boys are starting to grow up and out. They’re bigger than her, now. So Max shudders and burrows into Billy, sure that he’s right. He goes right on petting her until he speaks again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey. Look at me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She does without moving her head. But Billy’s hand in her hair isn’t satisfied with that, coaxes her up with fingers massaging her scalp. Giving him a little hum, that feels good, she does as she’s told. Billy cranes his head up to meet her, coming in slowly for a kiss. If she wants it. It’s almost sweet after so much fear ruining her afterglow. Her first orgasm. So Max nips his bottom lip before slotting their mouths together. She makes sure to lick the sting away even as he laps at her, eating into her mouth like earlier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Trading kisses with him unwinds that last wisp of sourness in Max. She hums with a wiggle to climb higher up him. He gives her an amused hum in return and blankets Max’s lower back with his hands. Those paws sliding down to grope her pert cheeks come as no surprise. He continues even as the bobs of their head slow to a stop and they just share breathing space.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you gonna tattle on me?” he asks with his voice at a low rumble.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pursing her lips, Max pretends to think about it. She’d wanted him the moment she saw him. Still, he made her cry at the end there. So the edge of a glare creeps into her face and pinches her eyes, the corners of her lips.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, but next time I say stop, you better. You’ll be in a lot of trouble.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His smirk is lazy when he drawls, “How old are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“14.” Max’s frown wrinkles harder. “You’re just now asking that? Really?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A huff blows out his nose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s about how old I thought you were.” Billy shuffles under her and squeezes her ass again. “Spunky for a 14 year old. You weren’t shy at all when I was coming on to you. You sure you never fooled around with anybody before?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’d remember a guy trying to shove his dick in me,” she snaps. Her cheeks glow as the word spills over her lips. Billy grins, so she snaps again, “Shut up!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mouthy brat,” he chuckles. “C’mere.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They lean into each other again, kisses a little rougher than before. Competitive even though Billy only needs to take Max by the back of her neck to turn the tides. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He holds her close like that, bobbing his head for one more kiss, and then murmurs, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think I heard you say something about next time?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max fights the heat in her cheeks when she takes her own kiss, murmurs back, “Maybe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just maybe?” He aims a mock pout at her. “Awww honey, don’t be like that. You don’t wanna have fun with me again?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He slips his hand around from Max’s hair to cup her cheek, petting a dry tear track. Something inside Max flutters. Mushy stuff. His attention and the way he smirks up at her just stir something up in her. Max’s cheek heats up, and she rubs that heat into his palm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s more we can do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Absolutely,” he purrs to her, brings her in for a long, soft kiss. “I’m not gonna force you or twist your arm. All right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She has to trust him when he says that. He’d stopped, after all. So Max nods, accepts another lippy kiss from him. Billy guides her head back down to his shoulder, sighing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So 14. What grade does that make you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Freshman. I’ll be 15 in October.” Max scoffs, remembering now the ugly uniforms hanging in her closet. It’s a plaid skirt. Repulsive. “Neil is making me go to this stupid private school.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yea, he’s a jerk. You’ll be fine, just keep your head down. You’re a tough girl.” He sighs next and goes back to holding her. He shuffles under her, sort of stretching. “We should get back to the reunion before someone gets suspicious.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess. Do we have to? It’s so lame there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yea, we ought to. Trust me, I wasn’t going to show up until I heard big bro brought his family. Had to see what poor woman he tricked into marrying him.” His next, single huff of laughter shifts Max on top of him. “Didn’t know he got you when he tied the knot, though. Made showing up worth it for once.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max sits up, knowing their time is coming to an end, and drawls, “You’re really gross, you know that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Billy sits up with her, snapping her up in his arms to keep her in his lap. She pays his soft cock under her thigh no mind. They’re out of time. But they’ll see each other again. Maybe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s all part of the allure, honey, you’ll get used to it. Pot calling the kettle dirty, though, cuz you’re a nasty little girl, too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not a little girl!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He just hums and dumps her on the couch, rising to his feet with his clothes snapped up from the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on. We need to get our story straight for when I bring you back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Max isn’t sure when she’ll see her Uncle Billy again. When she piles into Mom’s Buick, Neil driving, Max lingers long enough outside the car to meet Billy’s eyes. He’s parked a few spaces away. He’d never given her scrunchie back, still wrapped around his wrist. When Mom inevitably asks about her hair, Max already has her lie prepared. She recites it while watching Billy. No one but her catches the long, lewd look he gives her up and down. Undressing her with his eyes. He winks at her before swinging into his own car, driving away with a lazy wave out his window. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Two weeks later, she’s not expecting to take a seat in her homeroom class only for Billy to walk in. His suit is the school’s colors, deep red and brown. He has glasses perched on his nose instead of his aviators, curls tied back at the nape of his neck. With her scrunchie. A smooth operator, he doesn’t stumble when he sees her. Just pauses to readjust to the new reality before writing his name on the board.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mr. Hargrove. He’ll be their American History teacher this year. Turns out he’ll be her history teacher every year. She sits rooted to the flimsy, stiff desk for that whole first homeroom and even her first real class with him. Heart beating a mile a minute, she wonders what the fuck she’s gotten herself into for the next four years.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>&lt;3 all my long-time Billy/Max commenters in my inbox. I love how the universal response to Billy being Max's teacher was "didn't see that coming, didn't remember you tagged it." That's good =3c Means the smut was so good it made you forget teehee~ ANYWAY, this part takes place like four years later. Of course I could have written those four years out, made this super long and what not. But we all know it would still be sitting in my Google Docs, incomplete. So you get this instead. I finished this at the end of June, and I was already starting to dry out. OH WELL, it happens. Do not be sad, just enjoy these last stories and remember how good "Pickle Juice" was &lt;3 I still really like that fic.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s barely light out this May morning, fluorescent glow bouncing off the linoleum floor, when Max digs through her bag to find her keys. She tosses careful glances up and down the deserted hallway outside her homeroom. Billy isn’t here yet. She usually beats him, today no exception. She has her heart set on curling up on the tiny, old loveseat shoved in his classroom. The story behind it is apparently some students had borrowed it years ago from the theatre department for some presentation he assigned them. And then nobody wanted to move the fucking thing back across the school. So Billy has become that cool teacher with a couch in his classroom. She certainly lounges on it enough during down time in class. And since that first day nearly four years ago? No one has challenged her position.</p><p>Nobody knows the truth. Nobody even knows they’re related—only on paper, of course. They don’t share the same last name. Max doubts even the school knows Billy is her uncle. Step uncle. Whatever. He’s ‘Mr. Hargrove’ while in school. Just Billy when they’re alone, of course. Panic had struck her that first day, so fresh from her first brush with him in his apartment. The wrongness of it all made her queasy and uncertain. But the moment they were alone again? They were on each other like animals. Still are, even with her grown up and filling out. 18 for a few months but they hide even now. Billy will be her teacher for two more weeks. So she has to sneak into his classroom with the spare key he’d made for her. They do this every morning. They don’t always get up to something. Max woke up feisty, though. She has a treat ready for him, if he’d hurry the hell up and get to school.</p><p>Dumping her bag in her assigned seat, Max makes for the loveseat next to Billy’s desk. The desk faces the rest of the room while the couch is perpendicular to it, crammed in the corner by the door. Useful since Billy has the window tapped over with construction paper so no one can peek in. It had been like that on her first day, too. Sometimes she wonders if Billy ever had other favorite students. Other girls like her who caught his eye and who he then proceeded to sweep up and devour them whole. It tracks for him. He’s a filthy pervert through and through. It would make her classmates’ heads spin to know what they’ve done in this classroom. Max spares a glance to the cleared surface of Billy’s desk. That’s where they’ll probably end up this morning. Unless he shows up in a mood. Worse comes to worst she’ll just blow him, it’s whatever. She’d rather get fucked, though. Max curls up with her back facing the room, smiling to herself. Surely Billy can be convinced. It’s not like they see each other outside school.</p><p>They don’t see each other outside school for safety reasons. Neil doesn’t like Billy. Had made a whole scene when they got home from the reunion years ago. About how Billy was a bad influence, how he would ruin Max’s ‘future.’ Whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean. Max scoffs to herself and curls up tighter on the loveseat. So just to keep the peace with Neil, they decided to not hook up outside school. Carefully, through lying and Billy pulling some strings behind the scenes, they’ve avoided Neil finding out he’s her teacher. Neil has no idea Billy is even a teacher. They’re not on speaking terms. If they were, Max is sure Neil would throw a wrench into the whole mess.</p><p>She had suspected at the time, does so even now, that Neil is aware of his little brother’s… proclivities. That Billy likes younger women. Girls, mostly. It was a worry Max chewed her lip to blood over as the years passed and she went from knob-kneed tomboy to a tomboy with breasts and hips. That Billy only fucked her because she was young. Green. She’s still young, but not the sort that attracted him in the first place. He assures her all the time that there’s no one else. That he wants her even though she’s older. He doesn’t want anyone else, doesn’t fuck anyone else. It’s just her.</p><p>Sometimes when he’s done making her cries bounce off these cinderblock walls he even murmurs that he loves her. Never to her face, though. Max doesn’t know how she feels about him. It’s all too wrapped up in the taboo and excitement of him. So she doesn’t peel back the top layer of this thing to poke at its messy insides. She just lets the good times roll. They’re about to end, though. Neil is hellbent on sending her to college in Los Angeles. Away from Billy. They haven’t talked about it yet.</p><p>Max finds sleep despite her uncomfortable thoughts. Of love and what that means to her, if she feels the same. If there will be a ‘them’ once she graduates. It’s the quiet and coolness that calm her into napping. It’s always cool in Billy’s classroom thanks to it being on the shaded side of the school. A huge tree grows just outside the windows. Plus it’s barely light yet. So it’s not sunlight but gentle fingers in her hair that stir her from her nap some unknown time later. Max resists the lurch in her belly that wants her to flail and startle. It’s just Billy. No one else would be here yet. When she sneaks a glance to her watch—a gift from Billy—class won’t start for another half hour. They’ll have to be quiet if they get up to anything. She wants to, is sure Billy wants to when he curls above her to breathe her in. She smells like his shampoo and conditioner. Because he buys them for her. She likes smelling like him.</p><p>“What took you so long,” she grumbles before a groan and an awkward stretch. She used to fit rather neatly on this loveseat. Now there’s barely any room for just her, let alone him. “I’ve been waiting.”</p><p>Just as when she’d been 14, Billy’s strength is something to behold. He scoops her up, twirls them around, and then sits with her straddling his lap. When he finds the time to workout, she isn’t sure. Under Max’s hands splayed on his chest, Billy is still firm steel. A few strands of grey have crept into his curls. Salt and pepper if he weren’t a dirty blond. Mostly at his hairline. It hasn’t begun receding yet like Neil. Max gives it maybe four more years.</p><p>“Late start,” he excuses with a shrug. When Max reaches up to cup his jaw, it’s smooth. Clean shaven. His moustache is still sleazy, though. “I’ll make it up to you, but I wanna talk to you first.”</p><p>“About?” she asks with a flick of an eyebrow. </p><p>Greedy hands already on her waist, Billy gives her a squeeze as he shuffles under her. Getting comfortable with her weight on his thighs. It’s not until he grumbles and just pets up and down her sides that Max realizes what this is. Billy is… nervous? Anxious? He’s always such a smooth, cool cat. So him fidgeting is almost cute. Mostly because he’s fidgeting with her, finding the thick strap of her bra under her dress shirt and playing with it. She’d left her blazer with her bag. It’s just her in her white shirt tucked into her skirt. Not for long. </p><p>A great, heaping sigh blows out of Billy along with most of his tension. He sags back into the couch, feet spread wide below, and admits, “It’s about after you graduate.”</p><p>Making a sour face, Max asks, “You wanna talk about that now?”</p><p>She wiggles to drive her point home. Despite Billy’s age, it doesn’t take much to get him excited. When Max is involved, anyway. So she expects a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows or a slick grin. Billy’s arms around her tugging her to his chest and one hand tucking her head to his shoulder is unexpected. She goes stiff in his arms but doesn’t fight him. It only takes a few drags of Billy’s fingers through her hair to unwind. She melts into him a little and brushes her nose across the splash of his cologne. He’d gone light this morning. Definitely showered. He means business.</p><p>“Yea,” he sighs after a while. “Better now than after I’ve fucked you into my desk, don’t ya think?”</p><p>Max huffs a laugh into Billy’s neck, mumbles, “Whatever, weirdo,” and then cuddles closer.</p><p>He just holds her for a few breaths. In and out against her body until she matches him. She doesn’t even mean to. He’s just warm and comfortable to sit on is all. Something flips inside her when Billy bows his head to kiss her hair. They’re soft like the murmured confessions when he’s done with her. Only when she’s blissed out and far away from her body does he admit his feelings. So it’s serious.</p><p>She’s ready, fights the drop of her stomach when Billy asks, “Is my brother really making you apply to that college in Los Angeles?”</p><p>Max nods.</p><p>“We sent the essay and application off a few weeks ago. We’re supposed to know before I graduate from here…”</p><p>“Are you gonna go? Do you want to?”</p><p>Max hunches in on herself.</p><p>“I don’t know.”</p><p>“Max.”</p><p>She slouches into him and whines, “I don’t know, okay! Mom and Neil really want me to go, but I know it’s just because Neil convinced Mom, and Neil wants me away from you.”</p><p>“Fucking prick,” Billy grumbles under his breath.</p><p>Arms tucked lamely between them, Max lifts them so they’re chest-to-chest. She loops her arms loosely around Billy’s neck to fully lean on him. He takes her weight perfectly, finally relaxes under her. He has a stake in her response, in her desires for the future. He has a stake in whether or not he’s in that future. She knows why he’s asking.</p><p>“Well… you should figure out if you wanna go. I don’t think I need to tell you I don’t want you to go.”</p><p>“Good thing I asked what you wanted,” she mumbles, although she knows it’s loud enough for him to hear. “I haven’t really thought about it. I have no idea what I would do there, and I don’t think Neil would be satisfied with anything I want. He’d just want me to do something useful. Or get married and make babies, the way he talks.”</p><p>“Still on that high horse of his, I see.” Billy’s smugness drips in his voice. “Funny how he’s been married twice now, no kids. Not a one. But he’s the biggest proponent of that shitty, all-American dream of the white picket fence and two kids. Gag me with a spoon.”</p><p>Max muffles a giggle in her mouth, just short puffs of air brushing Billy’s throat above the collar of his shirt. They share the same annoyance for Neil. It’s refreshing since Mom is too afraid and set in her ways to stick up for herself. Max isn’t mad at her, though. Neil doesn’t beat on either of them. That’s where she draws the line. He could, though. She refuses to wait around to take the first strike. </p><p>Sitting up, Max fiddles with Billy’s dress shirt to match hers when she mumbles, “I just… I hate Neil, I hate living with him. I remember being really happy as a kid growing up with just Mom around. And now it feels like every time I’m home, he just sucks the fun out of everything.”</p><p>Billy pets up and down her back and drawls, “Fucking tell me about it, honey. I grew up with the miserable prick. And Mom liked me more, so she let me get away with anything and everything. He always hated me.”</p><p>Max’s heart goes out to him. She cannot imagine suffering Neil when no one was around. The subject of Neil is a sore one with Billy. He’s liable to yell and pace while ranting about Neil when he’s drunk. Max has never seen such a thing, but Billy called on one such night. It devolved into him slurring for her to talk dirty to him while he jerked off listening to her. Perhaps the most embarrassing thing she’s ever done. But it was hot to hear him moan while she excited him so much.</p><p>To touch those memories threatens to bring heat to her cheeks, though, and she knows they’re not done talking about this. So Max smoothes her hands over his chest and pets him back in kind. She turns her head to direct his kiss to her cheek. Denying him but only for now.</p><p>“Did you ever wanna just? Run away?”</p><p>“All the time,” Billy admits lowly. “Dad was a shitbag, Neil was a clone of him. I think our parents divorced the moment I graduated high school, really. Like they signed the papers while watching me walk across the stage.”</p><p>“So you got away eventually?”</p><p>Billy gives a hopeless sort of shrug.</p><p>“Not really. I was born here, live here, and I’ll probably die here. Parents are still alive, Neil’s still somehow a thorn in my ass, I’m trying to juggle too many kids in a class and fuck you on the sly. So it’s a rat race.”</p><p>Trapped like a rat. Max has felt the leash at her neck wind tighter and tighter as she grew up. It has never choked her like it does now, about to be dragged into a future she isn’t sure she wants.</p><p>Gripping tighter to Billy’s shirt, Max asks, “Do you still feel like you wanna run away?”</p><p>Something shifts in those devil eyes of his. Like an ice shelf buckling. Chunks of the sheet shifting.</p><p>“Why?” he drawls. “What are you thinking in that pretty head of yours?”</p><p>Leading Billy to water, Max says, “I’m already 18. So we’re not doing anything wrong. And once I graduate, you won’t be my teacher anymore. So you can’t get in trouble. And we’re not related.”</p><p>Nevermind that it wouldn’t take much to read the atmosphere and know all this had started when Max <em> was </em> underage and <em> was </em> Billy’s student. Nobody has to know that. Just the two of them. Alone together. </p><p>Billy stares at her with hooded eyes. When he speaks, his lips barely move, just the purr of his voice rumbles out.</p><p>“You wanna run away with me, honey? Is that what you’re getting at?”</p><p>Can she be bold?</p><p>“I mean, I don’t know,” Max groans, shoulders dropping only to hunch back into her. “You have a job and a life and all that stuff, it’s probably cabin fever or something, just—”</p><p>“I’m not saying no.”</p><p>Max’s face can’t help but twitch through a few emotions. Surprise, confusion, suspicion. </p><p>“Then what are you saying?”</p><p>Billy urges her close, fakes her out for a kiss. Not that she would have given him one anyway. </p><p>“I’m saying is that what you want?” He takes her by the upper arms to hold her still. “Not what Neil wants, not what your mom wants. It’s about what you want.”</p><p>Hunching in on herself, Max mumbles, “It’s stupid, though. Crazy.”</p><p>“I’m not talking about how smart it is, Max.” Now he peels a hand off her to pet hair out of her face, tucking some locks behind her ear. The curve of Max’s jaw and the apple of her cheek are Billy’s to cradle. Voice hitting gravel, he asks, “Do you wanna run away with me?”</p><p>Lips parted, Max cannot find words. It’s too fantastic. Too fairytale. Fucked-up Disney. If not for Billy waiting for her response, watching her without a lick of smugness or his usual bravado, Max would bark in laughter at him. But he’s serious about this. Would he do that? Just… what? Pack them up in his car and drive away? Where would they go? What would they do for money? Does Billy have that all figured out? If Max thinks about it too long, feeling along the frayed logistics, she’ll chicken out. Can she be bold? </p><p>Fingers tight in Billy’s shirt, Max gives him a few jerky nods. She almost can’t believe she’s doing it. But once it’s out, it’s out. Billy huffs through a wiry smile. Not cruel or teasing. Almost gentle for him. </p><p>“Okay,” he says like it’s that simple. He leans forward to finally take a kiss. Not that Max kisses back, too stunned with herself and her wild heart. Billy nuzzles her and adds against her jaw, “If that’s what you want, I’ll take you away. No one can stop us or come after us. It’ll be a cold day in Hell before I let someone take you away from me.”</p><p>Billy turns his head for more kisses, eats up her quiet, “Billy,” when Max tries to speak.</p><p>It all devolves into her arms slipping back around his neck and leaning into his chest as he licks her open. Paw of a hand cupping the back of her head, Max’s insides flip a few times as Billy’s kisses turn harder with an edge of desperation in them. Like he can’t get enough of her. Like if he kisses her long enough, she won’t leave. Max’s short fingers tug at the hair tie folding Billy’s messy curls into a bun. He hums, encouraging her, and Max pulls the tie free. The elastic ends up around her bare wrist for safe keeping. They’ll need a moment to rearrange themselves once they’re done. Talking is over for now. They’ll gather up this excitement, pent up fear, and lust for each other and make something useful out of it. The squeal Max lets out when Billy grabs her by her ass to pick her up is out of excitement, not surprise. She knows what comes next.</p><p>The flat wood of Billy’s desk is familiar under Max’s back. Even through her clothes she knows this surface well. One of her shoes falls to the floor as she kicks her legs around Billy’s hips. Big hands paw at her shoulders and chest to keep Max down, fighting her for control. She’ll give in eventually, but not without a playful tussle. It’s not fun just letting Billy have his way. Max whines and huffs with her mouth full of Billy’s tongue, pushy asshole, but she bites him to get him to retreat. He pulls back enough to start cursing at her, but Max’s fingers in his hair drag him right back down. Billy lands on top of Max hard enough to knock the air out of her. Her head spins as he dives into her again, hands at her hips dragging her to the edge of the desk to let him rut between her thighs.</p><p>Max pants for breath when Billy finally gives up kissing her dizzy. He doesn’t leave her, though, just tucks his wicked mouth to her neck instead. Neither of them can leave marks. It’s something Billy grumbles and rolls his eyes about when Max complains. If they’ll be discovered, it will be his fault. He can’t help himself most of the time, cannot resist a nibble or two. His hands and hips are not idle as he bathes Max’s pretty neck in attention. He sits up enough to get his hands between them, fondling meager breasts through Max’s clothes. Fuller than when they’d started all this, but they’ll never burden her. Chuckling in her neck, pleased with himself, Billy rocks his body between her splayed thighs, too. Teasing what he has in store for her. She has a surprise for him, too. </p><p>Hands pawing at his back just to feel him, Max moans, “Look under my skirt.”</p><p>Billy snuffles in her neck one more time, hums, “Don’t mind if I do,” and then helps himself.</p><p>The air that rushes in to fill the empty space between Max’s thighs is almost brisk. She flinches when Billy flips her skirt up. Milky thighs want to slam shut, but Max fights it. Flat on her back with her knees hiked up a little, she lies there breathing hard. His expression makes her heartbeat take off like a shot until she feels it in her fingertips.</p><p>“Damn,” Billy whispers. A little louder, “God damn.”</p><p>One hand resting on her thigh, the other reaches down for the sheen of silk and lace. Black. Max shudders when thick fingers pet her through the material. There’s probably already a shiny spot in them from squirming in Billy’s lap and making out with him. There will definitely be a spot as Billy smoothes his whole hand along the narrow strip of black silk covering her. Fingers curled gently over her mound, Billy presses his thumb hard to the aching center of her and draws that pressure up. When Max arches into his hand with a fluttering moan, quiet, he resets and does it again. Again, again, more until Max writhes on his desk to meet every flick over her clit. She doesn’t care what she looks like spread out on the wood, doesn’t care what he sees when he looks at her. Not that Billy has looked away from black lace once since touching her.</p><p>“So where’d you get these?” he asks with a sleazy grin. His voice is deep but not as steady as he thinks. She excites him, too. Billy’s thumb swirls fast a few times over her clit just to steal the words out of Max’s mouth. “Can’t decide if it’s hotter that you stole them or bought them under Susan’s nose.”</p><p>“Mom didn’t see them,” Max rushes out between teasing swirls of Billy’s thumb. Faster, harder now. “Billy come on, we don’t have a lot of mmmm…”</p><p>He pulls silk to the side to look at the shiny mess of her. Max quivers and arches into his touch so sweetly, trying to rub herself on the light caress of his fingers up and down. Gathering slick from her aching hole, he drags it to her clit to make each pet of blunt fingers that much hotter. Max slaps a hand over her mouth. The lines in her palm catch the lewd moan she lets out. Hips popping a few times, Max glares up at Billy’s easy grin. Go faster. Hurry up.</p><p>“Don’t gotta ask me twice,” he purrs. His hands peel off her only to rip his belt and fly open. Fully clothed, he slots between her thighs and rubs against her panties. Not to leave a mess, just to let her feel him. “Hate that you gotta be quiet. Love hearing you, honey.”</p><p>“Later,” she pants. “Just hurry up, need it so bad.”</p><p>“Yea?” Billy yanks her down until Max’s ass hangs off the desk. He needs a hand to keep her panties to the side while the other grabs for his dick, barely needing a few strokes to make sure he’s hard. “You slid them on this morning knowing I’d see them. You been wet this whole time thinking about it?”</p><p>Head blood-hot and blunt, Billy traces a path up and down her pussy like with his fingers a moment ago. Max trembles with every brush over her clit, but she nods for him anyway. Her hair is already a mess. She’ll have to fix it when they’re done. Can’t have anyone asking why she’s so blissed out once her classmates show up. There’s nothing she can do about the sweat under her clothes and how they’ll smell like sex. Hopefully one of the windows will open or something.</p><p>Sagging into the desk, Max relaxes and just whispers, “Hurry.”</p><p>She knows Billy stares up the pale column of her throat as he pushes in. Each twitch of her face as he glides through that initial squeeze of silky walls is for him. He teases her like that, dipping the head in and out to make a mess, to draw filthy sounds out of her. Max cannot spare the hand pressed tightly to her lips to cover her ears, though. So she wiggles under Billy and lets her moans go high, girly behind her palm. He likes that. Leftover from when she’d been tiny and young. Playing into his perversion. Hopefully he’ll still want her as she grows further and further away from that nymphet vision he ravished again and again. Hopefully he’ll want her forever.</p><p>Through a gap in her fingers, Max whines, “Billy come on, fuck me!”</p><p>Mostly to himself, Billy groans, “Love it when you beg,” before he slides home.</p><p>Billy catches his moan with his teeth in his lip. Max tries not to bite herself with her hand already blocking her noises plenty. Billy grinds all the way into her. It’s a tight fit with their clothes still on. She’s still a tight fit despite all they’ve done—Max’s hot objections about him ‘wearing her out’ a distant annoyance. That’s not a thing, and she knows it. Max cannot find it in her to revisit old irritation. Not with Billy picking up fast, jarring pace immediately. He needs it, too, even though he’ll only ever say as much when he’s about to come. His lips grow loose then. Need you, honey, never gonna leave you, love you.</p><p>Max’s free hand trembles when she throws it down to one of Billy’s pinning her waist to the desk. She rocks with him thanks to her ass hanging off the edge. Matching Billy’s hips rolling forward, Max shudders as she helps fuck herself. It’s best when Billy rears all the way back to slam his pelvis into her. That gets her shivering, eyes fluttering with every nudge of his blunt head right where she needs it. Nevermind Billy yanking her shirt out of her skirt only to slide his hands up delicate ribs, rolling one breast and then the other through her flimsy bra. Nevermind his hot, loud panting just above her as he eats up the way Max’s body flinches from his thrusts. Max’s whole world boils down to the hot glide of them together and Billy bowing down to kiss the back of her tense hand.</p><p>“Lemme kiss you,” he slurs. </p><p>He rams into her hard enough to pop a shrill cry out of her. Thin lips smother her before it ever reaches the air. Billy tears his hand away holding Max’s panties to the side to grab her by a shoulder. He pins her almost by her neck while grinding into her, lapping at the pretty whimpers caught in her mouth. Legs free thanks to her skirt, Max throws them around Billy’s torso and squeezes him with her thighs. Encouraging him. Clenching around him helps, too, and it’s Max’s turn to eat up his groan. Max grinds with him and wants to curse that their clothes make each twitch of their bodies tight, restrained. Soon. Soon they can lay each other out in a bed somewhere and do what lovers do. No more him bending her over a desk or fucking her against a wall. Max threads her shaking fingers into Billy’s loose curls and tugs him away, bobbing with him for a few kisses just because.</p><p>“Fucking love how you feel around me, honey,” he sighs, popping his hips into her a little. If not for his grip around her throat, he’d nudge Max up his desk. With a gravelly chuckle, he purrs, “You’re already so close. You really needed to get fucked, didn’t you?”</p><p>Shame hot in her ears and cheeks, Max nods and pants, “All the time. I-I think about it all the time.” Green-blue eyes flick up to meet his. “Being with you and letting you fuck me whenever you want.”</p><p>“Yea?”</p><p>Another nod and, “I wanna wake up next to you, o-ohhh god right there, and mmm and I’ve thought about touching you while you sleep.”</p><p>“Fuck that’s hot,” he growls. He sits up, truly wraps both hands around Max’s neck, and resumes pounding into her. “We’ll do that, honey, I promise. I’ll take you away from here, and you’ll be mine forever. I’ll never let you go, Max, you hear me? You’re mine.”</p><p>Max shudders as the last of Billy’s words come out with an actual snarl on his lips. Her legs shake from his hips pistoning into her. Almost too harsh. She won’t dare gasp and ask him to slow down or be gentle. Locking her ankles above Billy’s ass, his slacks sort of slipping down, Max helps to drive him into her harder yet. Red hair goes slipping over the far edge of the desk as Max tips her head back. Billy’s fingers lace under her neck, heels of  his palms pressing her throat from the sides. Pressure, sweet pressure that sends her heart jumping around inside her. He won’t choke her. Not really. It’s the threat of it, the power he has over her, that she gives him that coils Max’s pleasure tightly in her belly. He prods at it with his cock ramming into her. Eyes rolling back in her head and throat working over a swallow, Max tips the scales in her favor. She flicks a hand free of clutching at Billy’s shirt and shoves trembling fingers under her clothes. Tucking fingertips to her clit, Max only needs a few rubs to get herself the rest of the way there.</p><p>She wonders sometimes what it’s like for him. To feel velvet walls snap around him, for Max to go so tight that he can’t move. Her mouth falls open in a silent cry thanks to Billy’s hands around her throat. He relaxes that grip only to slap one hand over her mouth to let her wail. The other remains at her neck to hold her down as she arches and shakes on Billy’s cock. He hits her just right, maybe not even intending to rub along her walls to the peaks and troughs of her cries. They wind down as her orgasm subsides into afterglow. Max soon sweats under Billy’s palm trapping her whimpers. Because Billy isn’t done yet, chases the edge of his orgasm while his thrusts turn sloppy. Max lacks the strength and mind to brush him off. She can still breathe through her nose—more like heave for breaths as she calms down—so it’s fine. He won’t hurt her. He’d meant what he said about never letting her go. Max does find the strength to cling to the front of Billy’s shirt though as he slows down, dangerously close to coming. Because he’s hers, too. She should start telling him as much.</p><p>The hand across Max’s mouth turns gentle, cradling her as Billy hovers above. She whimpers when he pulls out. The hollowness almost hurts. He’s not quite crushing her as he throws his other hand down to stroke himself to the end. It must be slick, velvet skin burning hot from thrusting inside her. Billy shares breathing space with Max while groaning above her, biting kisses to her slack lips every so often. He can’t come in her like he wants to. They don’t have time to clean up. He could just wear a condom. That would make the little, white pill she takes every morning redundant. She’d only convinced Mom to take her to the doctor for the prescription because of Billy. Not that Mom knows that, would probably lose her mind if she knew the truth. Max just bobs her head with Billy’s harsh kisses and watches him through blurry eyes as he flinches hard and then holds still above her. Hopefully his come ends up on the desk and not her or her clothes. She doesn’t fancy blotting it up with tissues and then sitting with her uniform stained all day.</p><p>Lips smearing across Max’s jaw, Billy bites kisses here too as he groans quietly, coming down. Max whines and turns her head away. He’s too hot on top of her, now. Sweat slicks the back of her neck where her skin still pulses from Billy’s fingers. It’s worse in the creases of her—the backs of her knees are definitely wet to the touch. At least during his lust for her and grabbing at her breasts, Billy has done her a favor. Max’s shirt ripped free from her skirt allows air to pass over her flat belly. Billy sitting up and away welcomes a rush of cool air over her. She almost wants to shake herself back together and peel the button-up off. If only to air herself out. Shivering and biting back a whimper, Max turns her head to the clock above the chalkboard. They have about five minutes before the first bell rings. Ten minutes before class starts. </p><p>When Max sits up, her left hand lands straight in the wet spot courtesy of Billy. Hissing, Max tears her hand away from the mess already gone clear. To his credit, Billy slouches in his chair with his head tipped back, legs splayed wide, dick still out. Animal. Max is tempted to wipe her hand on him. Instead, she snaps a tissue out of the box about to fall off Billy’s desk and makes do. Cleaning up after him isn’t happening, though. She just wipes up her hand and then slides back to her feet. Oh that’s right one of her shoes had fallen off. Max uses this moment of privacy to snap another tissue and wipe between her legs, set her panties back to right. They’re a little sticky and cold when they press against her. She shudders.</p><p>A groan from Billy startles Max. She makes quick work of shoving her shoe back on and making sure her shirt is tucked in once more. Nothing of hers is out of place by the time Billy sits up and stares at his soft cock in his lap. His hair tie rests on the desk beside the tissues, a clue for him to clean up. No urgency guides him as he rocks the chair closer to the desk, tissue box within his reach if he stretches. Max wanders away from him not for privacy’s sake but to throw her strength against one of the windows. It whines as it slides up its track. They need to air this place out. Max nudges a desk the wrong way to cut through to the next aisle and shove at that window, too. On the third, belly pressed to the sill, Max startles with a yelp when Billy takes her by the waist from behind.</p><p>“Jeez, Billy, you scared the crap out of me!”</p><p>“I hope not,” he purrs in her ear, swaying with her a little. “Those panties are hot. It’d be a shame to ruin them.”</p><p>“Uhg, you’re disgusting.”</p><p>Billy sighs in her ear, no remorse at all, “Yea,” and then slides his hands around to hold her properly. “You like me anyway. Plus you’re the one who bought them just for me. So you’re not much better, honey.”</p><p>“Who says I didn’t buy them for myself?”</p><p>A hand reaches down to grope between Max’s legs when Billy purrs, “I know you didn’t.”</p><p>His chest and other arm catch her weight. He’s ready for it, not even a stumble as Max bucks in his embrace. Billy’s laugh nearly twinkles in her ear as he pushes back against her strength. No matter how hard Max rallies, she is nothing caught between the window and Billy. He wrestles her around, his hair pulled back while Max’s is still messy, and cages her with his arms. The window and cinderblock wall below it are cool behind her. The windowsill digs into her just above her ass as Billy presses forward, forward, forward. He’s on top of her once more when the first bell shrieks, warning students they have five minutes until class begins.</p><p>Blinking hard through the ring, Billy smoothes his expression back to something molten and drawls, “Damn, first bell. What a shame.” A hand lifts off from the window to pet Max’s cheek with the curl of his knuckles. “Guess we’ll have to pick this up later.”</p><p>Max huffs, rolls her eyes despite the pink flush under her freckles. Billy bows closer with his fingers curled over her jaw to keep her still.</p><p>“Max,” he murmurs. </p><p>She knows what he wants, flashes green-blue eyes up at him. The devil waits for her.</p><p>“I’m gonna get things started on that little getaway of ours,” he promises with his lips brushing hers. “I meant what I said about taking you away. You hear me?”</p><p>She tips her head forward to take a kiss before nodding.</p><p>“You better,” she whispers back. “I’ll never let you live it down, running your mouth and letting the check bounce.”</p><p>He chuckles at her, takes his own kiss, and then murmurs, “Clever.”</p><p>One last stroke of his thumb over her cheek and then he’s away. Sweeping himself back to the front of the classroom, Billy sets his desk back to rights. Just as swiftly, he’s at the door with his fingers on the lock. He spares Max a glance to meet her eyes. Permission given with a nod, though, Billy unlocks the classroom door before any other student makes it here.</p><p>It would be awkward, after all, for their homeroom teacher to unlock the door only for Max to be in here with him. Even the most naive girls in her year would connect the dots. Their parents try so hard to repress them, after. If Billy—or any adult, for that matter—knew what some of these girls get up to. If Billy likes young girls, he could have picked any of them in his homeroom that first day. They would have tripped over themselves to let him fuck them like he tried to with Max. Their lust blinds them.</p><p>Returning to her desk, Max glances at Billy already writing on the board. She thinks maybe she’s just as blind as them. She saw him first, after all. She wanted him long before he sauntered over and offered her more than a ride. Still a school boy later when Max stares him down during lecture and crosses her legs just so. Just enough exaggeration to give him a taste. A flash of black silk and lace. She can be bold. A smooth cat, Billy doesn’t even stutter, just loses his train of thought. Only to roll it into the next topic. All while Max burns holes in his broad back, dying for these two weeks to pass. </p><p> </p><p><br/><br/>Sleeves of her jacket too long for her arms, Max has to flick her hands before taking the Polaroid from Billy.</p><p>“I’m setting this one up this time. You fucked the last one up.”</p><p>Cigarette on his lips, Billy practically dumps the camera in her hands.</p><p>He mumbles behind the filter, “Oh goody, now all I have to do is stand here all pretty. About damn time.”</p><p>Max mushes him in the chest, mutters, “Weirdo,” and then fiddles with the self-timer switch. “Stop leaning on the car, it’ll mess with the shot. That’s what you keep doing wrong, by the way.”</p><p>Billy lifts a hand off his cocked hip only to pinch Max’s ass. She yelps and leaps up and away, just how he’d wanted.</p><p>“Anybody ever tell you how cute you are?”</p><p>“Anybody ever tell you how much of an asshole you are?”</p><p>Billy snatches her up with an arm around her waist and drags Max to him. She struggles a little against his chest, but grabbing her ass with his other hand has her shaking against him. Those little hands shoving at his chest are torn between holding on and continuing the fight.</p><p>“Billy quit…”</p><p>“Way too late to play the shy card, honey,” he chuckles at her, hiking Max a little higher on his hip. Her sneakers dance in the dirt under them. Billy cranes his head closer, eating up Max trying not to smile, and purrs, “Gimme some sugar.”</p><p>She snorts in his face, rolling her eyes with that smile refusing to give up. Even when Max purses her lips flat, Billy knows he has her. </p><p>Muttering, “You’re so lame,” under her breath, Max gives in.</p><p>Leaning her weight into Billy’s chest, Max arches up on her toes to meet him. If anyone sees them, it won’t matter. Hasn’t mattered since they’d taken off from San Diego with just a few suitcases and Billy’s car. They drove to Las Vegas first, just because. Not that Max could accompany him into many places, being only 18 at the time. The week or so they’d spent there, Billy made jokes about getting hitched. Tying the knot with an 18 year old so mommy and daddy couldn’t take her away. She even allowed him to take a knee in front of her, although they quickly mocked the gesture with Billy tugging her clothes down and pressing his face between her legs. It was better than a ring or wedding. Las Vegas treated them well.</p><p>That’s where Max sent her first postcard back to Mom. Without telling Billy about it. After that, they took their time wandering north, hitting Sequoia National Park, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe. All with Max leaving a trail of postcards in drop-off boxes for Mom. Never elaborating on anything. Just vague lines of ‘I’m okay’ or ‘I’m happy with Billy’ or ‘miss you.’ Their stint in the California forests lasted a month before they felt the collective itch under their skin to drift farther from home. Making it as far north as Mount St. Helens, they’ve slowly trickled back towards San Diego. For the past three weeks, a room in a motel in Eureka, California right on the coast has been their home. They drove to Redwood National Forest just for fun today. Because it doesn’t cost any money to just drive amongst some tall, old trees.</p><p>The issue of money weighs on Max even as she bobs her head with Billy through kisses. When they’d left months ago, he promised they would be okay. That he was squirreling money away pretty much since he got out of college, that he had plenty for them to bum around. Camping in the beginning was the cheapest choice, the easiest way to make that money last longer. They’re pampered creatures, though, and neither enjoys the rugged outdoors. Motels cost money; gas costs money; repairs to Billy’s car cost money. The longer they stay in Eureka? The more Max worries their grand adventure is about to end. Billy left his position in San Diego in good standing. He could teach anywhere in the state, realistically. Is settling down somewhere else giving up, though? Have they run away long enough to sow roots?</p><p>Nudging Billy back with her hands on his chest, Max blinks up at him as she considers what she wants to say. It’s something that’d bothered her while they got ready for this day trip. While she was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, she heard Billy on the phone in their room. He was on the bed furthest from the bathroom, huddled around the phone as he spoke. Not with anger or sadness. Just quiet so Max wouldn’t hear. She sends postcards to her mother. Billy calls his whenever he can hide it from Max. And judging by Billy heading to a bank for a few minutes before coming back to collect her, Max thinks she knows what’s going on. Billy’s mom is sending him money. The circumstances surrounding this—does she know about them? Is she upset that Billy ran off with a teenager? Why is his mom supporting them?—are entirely unknown to Max. She wants to know. Just… how to ask Billy without pissing him off?</p><p>“Billy… are we okay?”</p><p>His face flinches through confusion and annoyance before settling on neutral.</p><p>“Why wouldn’t we be?”</p><p>“Because I overheard you telling your mom thank you for sending you some money.”</p><p>Huffing, Billy’s arms tighten around Max as he murmurs, “Oh, heard that, did ya?”</p><p>“Billy…”</p><p>Throwing his head back with a sigh, Billy shoots Max a pointed look when he rights himself. Billy’s arms clutch Max tightly to him, lift her off her feet this time, and then he shuffles them towards the car. He leans her against the passenger door and then traps Max there with his weight. Max gives Billy the briefest fight for the sake of her pride. She gives in when he slips a hand up to pet her hair, holds her cheek when he pulls her into a kiss. They stay close like that as Billy searches her face for something.</p><p>“Yea, I asked my mom for money, okay? I’m not through my savings yet, but we’re getting there.” He sighs and kisses her again when Max frowns at him, irritated. “I didn’t want to drag us back to San Diego just for money. My mom doesn’t know about any of this. She refuses to speak to my brother or my dad because of the divorce. Neil sided with dad, I sided with mom. So she doesn’t even know you exist.”</p><p>“Okay? So are we good or not?”</p><p>“We are for the next two weeks. After that, I’ll have to ask for more money,”</p><p>Max nods. The leash around her neck gives a twitch like it will drag her back home. To Neil and whatever fate she would suffer for running off. Max’s hands flat on Billy’s chest tighten. Clutching him to her in return. </p><p>“Hey,” he says softly. “Look at me.” When she does without much hesitation, Billy kisses her again. Foreheads resting against each other’s, Billy murmurs, “I’m not taking you back there, okay? And we’re gonna make this work. You trust me, don’t you?”</p><p>“You know I do,” Max huffs. “Is that even a question?”</p><p>She’s still not great at admitting her feelings. That she trusts Billy completely. That she loves him, too. The words are cumbersome in her mouth, choke her throat and heart. Max would not have jumped feet-first into the deep end of this pool if she didn’t at least trust him. The trust came years ago, love following. If that’s what the squirming thing in her stomach is whenever Billy is around. She’s still never said the words to him. And he still only says it when he thinks she’s far away—post-coitus or asleep. It’s just not in them to be so vocal about it. Max doesn’t let it bother her as Billy presses her flush to his car. She fakes him out before he traps her head in his hands and takes the kisses he wants. </p><p>Humming and already smiling when he pulls off, Billy drawls, “Good, you better. So when were you gonna tell me about the postcards you keep sending to <em> your </em> mom, huh?”</p><p>There’s nowhere for Max to go when she squirms. So she just ends up rubbing against Billy.</p><p>“I didn’t want you to razz on me, okay?” Max’s shoulders hunch up, ready for Billy to do so now. “Just because I left with you doesn’t mean I don’t miss my mom or anything. I don’t want her to worry about me.”</p><p>Billy flicks an eyebrow up at her.</p><p>“I mean? How am I gonna give you a hard time about the postcards when I call my mom, too? Come on, Max, you know me better than that. The only thing I’d be worried about is my brother somehow finding us and causing a scene.”</p><p>“That was my worry. That you’d say that and cause your own scene.”</p><p>Huffing and getting as close to a pout as Billy can, he scoffs, “Well, I’m not, so quit keeping shit like that from me. You’re an adult, so talk to me when you’re dealing with something like that. Got it?”</p><p>He’s so gruff, but Max knows he’s actually a little hurt. Max may roll her eyes and mumble, “Okay,” but her heart swells in her chest. His desire for her is such a sweet thing.</p><p>She’ll make it up to him. Hands smoothing up Billy’s arms, Max takes him by the open collar of his button-up and pulls him down for kisses. It’s something she hasn’t gotten over yet: kissing and touching Billy so openly. The first time in Las Vegas, standing in front of a hotel and admiring a fountain, he slung an arm low on her back and cradled her far hip. Such a casual, intimate display. The more he did it, the more she wanted him all over her. Finally after knowing him for nearly four years, being involved with him, she got to experience the possessive gleam in his eye. The gleam that always told her eventually he’d grab and kiss and tease her whenever he wanted. He does so now, not caring about cars pulling over for the scenic view or kids staring and pointing at them. Max is the one to wrestle him back, lips tingling.</p><p>Panting, Max says, “Enough, we’re gonna get the cops called on us again.”</p><p>“Don’t want that. I had plans for tonight.”</p><p>“Pictures first. You said we could stop on our way back from Portland. That was over two weeks ago.”</p><p>Groaning, Billy gives in after one last kiss. He rocks off her, leaving Max propped against the car.</p><p>“Where do you wanna take the damn picture?”</p><p>He humors her, then, and even smiles for real in a few shots. Mostly ones they’re in together. Max slips the fresh Polaroids into her jacket’s pocket to wait for them to develop, only looking at them when Billy is distracted or smoking. So he doesn’t see the softness in his face when he’s holding her to his side. He’d deny it or distract her in turn. Their feelings are… too much for them to deal with. Maybe it will get easier? Max can only hope. It’s annoying to grow so nervous over a few words, to grow so warm over feelings of tenderness. It’s just something she has to unlearn, she thinks. So used to stuffing her true feelings down to protect them. Like a weakness.</p><p>Glancing across the forest floor to Billy smoking up wind, Max knows Billy doesn’t make her feel weak. He makes her feel wanted and loved. Even when he’s lecherous, feeling her leg up at a restaurant or groping her while driving. The wrongness in him speaks to her. Charms and looks aside, there’s just a way about Billy that draws her in. Maybe it’s that school boy edge in him. Never a dull moment with Billy. She’s never bored with him, and maybe that’s why settling down with him doesn’t feel like she’s betraying her pride. She’s been bold twice to get what she wanted. Max can be bold again, choosing him and a place they found together. Green-blue eyes watch Billy while she decides this, and he catches her watching. Rubbing his cigarette out in the dirt, Billy stalks across the forest trail to reach her once more.</p><p>“Hey Billy?”</p><p>“Hey Max?”</p><p>They share a little smirk before Max’s face grows somber again.</p><p>“I kinda like it in Eureka. It’s nice living so close to the ocean again.” She spares him a skittish glance through hair framing her face. A flick of her wrist tucks the lock back behind her ear. “Do you think you could find a school to hire you?”</p><p>“I take it you wanna stay here, then.”</p><p>Max nods, although she only briefly meets Billy’s eyes to do it.</p><p>He shrugs in the corner of her vision.</p><p>“School already started this year, but I can always do sub work. What about you?”</p><p>Max frowns, asks, “What about me?”</p><p>A slick grin cuts across Billy’s face.</p><p>“Well, either you get a job too or be my little housewife. Frilly apron and martini not optional.”</p><p>Just the image of that, something oddly arousing about it, steams Max’s cheeks for a split second. Indignation rides on its heels. She sputters a few times, and Billy’s wild cackle echoes off the trees. Of course she knows it’s a joke, but still! He’s not the husband type and she’s not the home-maker type. They fit together differently, will never be like their parents or Mom marrying Neil. So Max soothes her attitude behind her tight lips, lets Billy’s laughter quiet to nothing, and then shoots him a thin glare.</p><p>“Haha, very funny. For your information, the movie theater we went to a few days ago had a ‘help wanted’ sign in the ticket booth. So I thought I’d apply there. They can’t want anything more than a high school diploma.”</p><p>Billy’s amusement is thick when he mutters, “I reckon not.” It winds all the way down when he holds her stare, waits for her glare to relax. “You’re sure about this?”</p><p>Max nods again and says, “I don’t want us to be in the middle of nowhere when the money runs out. Or stuck in some shithole. It’s nice here. Do <b>you</b> wanna stay?”</p><p>Max wonders if Billy feels it when a part of his face softens when he looks at her. Of course Max sees it clear as day. So she knows her question, her concern means something to him. Billy takes the two or so steps separating them and then squeezes Max by her upper arms. </p><p>“I’m not gonna lie to you and say I’d stay anywhere so long as you were with me. Cuz”—he shrugs—“that would be some cheesy bullshit lie. You’re right, though, it is nice here. And we don’t have to stay forever. I can’t see you and me staying in one place too long.”</p><p>A huge weight lifts off her shoulders. Max’s fingers snag in Billy’s belt loops as she leans into him. His arms slip so naturally and comfortable around her, both of them clutching the other to them. Nuzzling across his chest, Max can’t believe Billy feels the same. That they’re not meant to sew roots or any of that garbage. White picket fence and two kids. That’s not for them. Not even the mockery of that is for them. Max just wants somewhere reliable and safe to live with him. If it’s pretty like Eureka is, that’s a bonus. Portland had been closer to their speed, but they like the ocean too much to stay away. Max is sure, sighing into Billy’s shirt, that he misses his surfboard in storage back in San Diego with the rest of his belongings. </p><p>“I’m glad we agree on that,” Max says while tipping her head up. She finds devil eyes already waiting for her. “Sticking around here for a little while will be nice. We can leave again at any time.” A smirk cracks across her lips. “You think we’ll ever end up anywhere really cool? Like Hawaii or something?”</p><p>Billy shrugs.</p><p>“Maybe. I’ve heard it’s one of the best places in the world to surf. Maybe I’ll pick it up again before I get too old.”</p><p>“You’re 42 not 62.”</p><p>Billy sighs, “Yea.” A pause. The forest is muffled almost to silence. No one else is around. “Still young enough to do this.”</p><p>Max’s shriek bounces off the redwoods towering above them when Billy dips and sweeps her off her feet. Bridal style, he spins them around on the wide path. Giggling through ‘stop’ and ‘put me down,’ Max’s arms cling tightly to Billy’s neck. Somewhere through the wind-chime twinkle of her laugh, Billy’s hearty guffaws tangle with hers amongst the bark and branches. She doesn’t care anymore if someone happens upon them or hears them. Let them hear the joyous sounds of lovers in love.</p>
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